Classification of Native Ads

According to IAB classification, there are six types of Native Ads

In-Feed Type:
It is the ad that display between the content of the web sites or application. It gets synchronized with the content and does not appear like an ad. In recent years, text or banners ad is no more uncommon which will attract much of user’s attention thus we can expect in-feed advertising to do wonders in the digital business media.

In Feed Type

Paid Search:
In other words, it can be called as listing advertising as it appears in the similar format as the search result of any query.

Paid Search Units

Recommendation Widget Type:
This type of native ad is done via widgets or recommendation column on the website. While reading an article you may see “recommended articles” or “You might like” under which promoted content or article link will be shown where clicking on it will take you to the detail page. The advertisement (native ad) to be displayed to the user is customized and is shown as per targeting the required people.

Since it is often displayed at the bottom of the page, visibility is often lower than other ad formats.

Recommendation type

*The listing could be in a form of images also.

Promote listing type:
It is the advertisement that is displayed in a similar format as the actual search results and is generally seen at the top of search results matching the word that the user searched.

Listings on Etsy.com:

Promote Listing Type

In-Ad (IAB Standard) with Native Element Units:

This type of ad is same like display ad but with an exception of having content within it. The ad fits within the standard IAB container outside of the editorial well, but is contextually relevant to the content around it.

In-Ad (IAB Standard)

*Source – IAB

Custom Type:
This type of ad is the one which does not fall under any above five types. E.g. Native ads on Pandora

Custom Type

*Source – IAB